President Donald Trump’s own allies are among those alarmed over his lethal strikes on so-called drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
GOP lawmakers have reportedly left briefings fuming over the lack of basic information they’ve received from the Trump administration regarding the strikes, five congressional sources and an additional insider revealed to NBC News.
At a recent classified briefing, Republican lawmakers were reportedly visibly distressed over the attacks.
“The Republicans were mad that the briefers were unable to answer questions about the legal basis for the operations,” one source told NBC.
Last month, Trump began ordering lethal military strikes on boats he claims are smuggling drugs to the U.S. from Venezuela. A total of 27 men have been killed so far, yet U.S. officials have provided little to no evidence of who or what was on board.
Apparently, the lack of transparency is happening behind closed doors, too. Officials have reportedly refused to provide lawmakers with unedited video of the strikes or explain who was killed, how they were identified as legitimate targets, what intelligence linked them to drug-trafficking gangs, or what evidence showed they were heading to the U.S. with narcotics, according to NBC.
With such sparse information, GOP lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned that an American citizen could have been killed in the attacks, NBC reported.
Some have taken their concerns public. GOP Senator Rand Paul, who crossed the aisle to vote for a shot-down measure that would have required congressional approval before more attacks could be launched, publicly aired his distress in a speech on the Senate floor last week.
“Those in charge of deciding whom to kill, might let us know their names, present proof of their guilt, show evidence of their crimes,” he said.
“Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them, to know what evidence exists of their guilt?”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Daily Beast that current operations in the Caribbean are “lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.”
“Lawyers up and down the chain of command have been thoroughly involved in reviewing these operations prior to execution, none questioning their legality,” Parnell wrote in an email.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
A Defense Department spokesperson also told NBC that Congress is “being fully informed.”
On Tuesday, Trump announced the most recent lethal strike on a fifth alleged drug-smuggling boat from Venezuela via Truth Social, writing: “Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking, in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela.”
He continued: “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route. The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!”
The announcement followed Trump’s quiet determination that the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The cartels have been designated by the administration as “non-state armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.”
It also comes amid mounting international skepticism about the strikes—including calls for Trump to be criminally investigated over them.
The first attack, in September, killed 11 people in international waters and has been described by critics as a serious violation of human rights, possibly amounting to a war crime.
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